Rs 130 crore Ganga cruise project LoI soon

To develop Ganga river tourism, the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation(WBTDC) is planning to issue letter of intent (LoI) for the Rs 130 crore river cruise project by the end of this month, besides developing ghats along the Ganga as well as upgrading existing river cruise vessels.

WBTDC will have less than 50 per cent stake the public private partnership (PPP) project on behalf of the state government.

The entire project would be executed over four years, said T V N Rao, managing director, West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation(WBTIDC), on the sidelines of a CII seminar on tourism.

Nearly, 50 per cent of the work is expected to be completed within the next two years, Rao informed. The exact route for the cruise is yet to be decided.

It would be between Kolkata and Farakka which is over 300 kilometers upstream from Kolkata, and also down up to Sunderbans.

"The cruise operator will have the liberty to decide the route map.", Rao said.

Besides, WBTDC is all set to revamp 11 ghats along the 260 kilometer stretch on the Ganga from Kolkata to Azimgunge in Murshidabad at a cost of Rs 21 crore.

The project is funded by the Centre, and the Corporation has already received the funds and work is to start soon.

"This is the investment in infrastructure, while the river cruise is the product on offer. The restoration and development of the ghats was necessary to attract private tour operators and promote river tourism in the state.", he added.

At present, the private operators interested to start barge and ferry operations along the ghat are discouraged by the lack of infrastructure.

Dakshineshwar, Belur, Barrackpore, Chandannagore, Plassey, Mayapur are among the 11 identified ghats.

Adding to this,WBTDC is also planning to upgrade the four vessels that ply on the Ganga now into air-conditioned ones and raise the tariff by 70 to 80 per cent.

Two will be ready within the Pujas this year,including one vessel, the 'Madhukar', by the middle of this month.